Anyone have a cool job??

[txknockout]

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I am currently looking for a job that I can say I truly enjoy (done the whole basic science research bit and it's only so fulfilling). I would love to do clinical research or even be a medical assistant. I was wondering how many of you out there have jobs you really enjoy (what are they, etc.)

 

[UT_OC]

I am a Clinical Assistant in Surgery at Brackenridge Hospital.. very interesting job. I get to watch all types of surgeries, (and its a trauma hosp. so we get some freaky stuff) stock the rooms, clean them after each surgery, talk to pts., scrub into cases and assist the surgeon (every once in a while), so overall, I would say my job, to me, is fascinating.. I think it really influenced me into doing surgery residency when I get there.
👍

 

[3rd_i]

I'm a medical assistant in the wound recovery center at Kent hospital in Warwick RI. It's an outpatient clinic for chronic non-healing wounds. I love it because:

1 it gives me the opportunity to observe all types of strange cases, investigate them, and observe treatments.
2 I get to travel all around the hospital, observing doctor-doctor relationships as I assist our physician with his in house rounds.
3 the patient contact is rewarding and informative.
4 I've got benies (benifits), including partially paid tuition, and library/journal access.
5 I have some stellar letters of reccomendation from the doctors for whom I work.

 

[ArcherM2]

I'm an Emergency Room scribe. I basically do ALL of the charting for the doctor I am assigned for an entire 12 hours shift. I see about 20-30 patient's within that shift ranging from abdominal, CVA, MI's, basically anything you can think of that might warrant an emergency room visit. It's great experience. Working alongside the doc's you get a very good understanding of thier attitudes towards patient's and how they deal with them.
The experience has truly been priceless though I do get paid 17 dollars/hour. I have learned how to do a head to toe exam, how to take a proper history, and what different X-Ray, EKG, Ultrasound and CT interpreatations mean for the patient that is being managed.

I truly LOVE this job. You see something new everyday and it's very fulfilling when you are able to lend a helping hand to the patient's. I live NJ, and I know that my hospital is the only one in New Jersey with this type of program. I know of one other such program that is in Philadelphia. Good luck on your job hunt! PM me if you live in the Central NJ area.

 

[cpb80]

hello-
I too am looking for clinical experience, and all of your job descriptions sound fascinating. However, I do not have formal training, but I would love hands on experience and patient contact. What courses/certification did you all receive (if any), and how long did it take? Any other advice? Thanks

 

[wytosk]

Im a bowling alley mechanic... best job ever. shadowing a surgeon is fun too!!

 

[PreMedAdAG]

I'm a clinical research coordinator. I work to coordinate clinical trials for multiple sponsors. It's great because I get to see patients by myself and observe anything that the doc does. I work 8:30-5, benefits and am on salary. It's been pretty cool, decent pay and incredible clinical experience

 

[Alderon007]

I'm an intern at DaimlerChrysler for the third year in a row. Pays well but sucks bigtime.

 

[Hook17]

Payphone technician...

 

[joselind]

i'd love to go back to my high school days of grass cutting. so simple, great being outdoors, and the pay rocked.

 

[Doc 2b]

Unlike the rest of you guys I'm taking a break from clinical work. I started right out of highscool working in the hospital, done every thing from worked in Trauma Room, to surgical first assist, to working in a dr's office. And now I"m going for better pay, I'm going to be a drug rep during my interim. You guys that have the year off should take a look, pays great, good hours, and they eat up science majors, just don't tell them your heading to medschool next fall.

 

[tinkerbelle]

I'm taking a break from research too. This year I will get to teach little sixth graders math... I'm excited because I get to decorate a classroom with lots of cutesy girly stuff 🙂

 

[winstonm]

I have a clinical research position at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto with the Cardiac Transplant Program. It's a great position, I think our program is one of the five largest in North America (nobody is close to Loma Linda). 3 years ago our program showed that ABO-incompatible tranplantation in infants is possible without any excess morbidities and similar outcomes to the ABO-compatible group--since the new protocol was instituted, the waitlist mortality has dropped from over 50% to about 7% or so. I'm really lucky to work in such a great place, getting research and clinical exposure. It gives you a true appreciation for what these little kids and their families go through; their resolve is hard to believe.

Now, the most FUN job I had was two years ago when I was a DJ at a huge water park here. They built a Caribbean-themed area which was licensed (for liquor), had a pool with a waterfall, and the DJ booth was in a gazebo. I got paid $20 an hour to play music and watch women all day, was allowed to swim when I wanted, and some of the season pass holders bought me caronas when they came ! 😀 Beat that!

 

[synapse lapse]

I am a Clinical Assistant in Surgery at Brackenridge Hospital.. very interesting job. I get to watch all types of surgeries, (and its a trauma hosp. so we get some freaky stuff) stock the rooms, clean them after each surgery, talk to pts., scrub into cases and assist the surgeon (every once in a while), so overall, I would say my job, to me, is fascinating.. I think it really influenced me into doing surgery residency when I get there.
👍

They have surg residency at Breckenridge? I wasn't aware of this. I am from Austin and plan on practicing there when I finish residency, but I didn't know they had residency spots at Breckenridge. Man, I miss home. Oh well, goign back in a few weeks.

 

[leechy]

Wow, how did you all find your neato jobs? I have a hard time finding / getting anything clinically related - I either get rejected or ignored. Did you folks have prior training in anything, or connections that helped you land your jobs? 👍 on your great jobs.

 

[Peter Griffin]

I'm a scribe in Boise Idaho. I know that this is a relatively new program, but if you could find a scribe position you should get it. I don't think that I could imagine a better job. I don't make 17 bucks an hour like the above post. I only make 10 (but I'm sure the cost of living in NJ makes up for that). It's a lot of work, the learning curve is massive, and our program requires work during school as well as summer. I work 27 to 36 hours a week year round. Scribing is wicked awesome! Are there any other scribes out there?

 

[IndyZX]

What's a scribe?

 

[Peter Griffin]

Look at the post above, it has a relatively good description.

 

[premedgeek]

I work for Microsoft. I am a programmer for Kernel part of Windows Longhorn(next version of Windows XP).

 

[Fusion]

I worked in the O.R. as an anesthesia technician for about a year before I went to graduate school. It was an awesome job, very hands-on, and I got to do and see a lot. I assisted with intubation/induction, epidurals, and placement of arterial lines, central lines, and Swan-Ganz catheters. I was pretty much the anesthesiologist's right-hand man. I set up equipment, made sure they were stocked with supplies, had all their drugs, etc. Working in the O.R. full-time also allowed me to observe and learn a lot about different surgeries, and I learned a lot about medicine and healthcare in general. All the training was on the job, so no previous experience or certification was necessary. Got a pretty decent wage too ($11.59/hr).

 

[akpete]

home depot anyone?? 🙂

 

[Deanmonster]

I work on an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Actually, I'm there right now!! Everything smells like hydrocarbons, but the view is nice. 😉

 

[Scandal]

I get to send subpoenas to witnesses... that's pretty fun. I work for a DA's office as Witness Coordinator. I also do Intake stuff.

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

I'm a data analyst for a NASA physiology lab. I analyze data from experiments that we do on astronauts on the international space station. The actual work is not fun, but it really is an interesting and unusual subject, plus I work with interesting people.

 

[Perrin]

I wolunteer at the Community Free Clinic in Huntsville, AL. I get to draw blood, perform urinalysis, order lab work, and chat with patients. It's a lot of fun and we get free food all the time. I also get to hang out with docs a lot.

..and I work at subway to make money.

 

[stifler]

Unlike the rest of you guys I'm taking a break from clinical work. I started right out of highscool working in the hospital, done every thing from worked in Trauma Room, to surgical first assist, to working in a dr's office. And now I"m going for better pay, I'm going to be a drug rep during my interim. You guys that have the year off should take a look, pays great, good hours, and they eat up science majors, just don't tell them your heading to medschool next fall.

heh sounds like im on the same track you are. i just got out of high school too and i work in a lab doing surgery on rodents

 

[BubbleBobble]

I work for Microsoft. I am a programmer for Kernel part of Windows Longhorn(next version of Windows XP).

Awesome. 👍 I'm a summer intern at Boeing right now, writing software for their defense division.

 

[UT_OC]

BubbleBobble.. bad a$* game.. I loved that game when it was on Nintendo.

 

[mshheaddoc]

Those of you in clinical positions ... what experience did you have going in which allowed you be in the position you obtained? Thanks!

 

[playa4real]

I am quite interested in these hands-on internships/jobs at the hospitals, i.e. medical assistant, clinical assistant, and so on; however I do not know how to go about getting one. Does anyone know any way that I could get one, anybody have any connections or just tips?

btw, im in boston


thanks

 

[DGhiker]

I'm a clinical research coordinator also. So, I basically do all the day-to-day stuff of managing a clinical trial at my site, which would include seeing patients and taking vitals, blood, dispensing study med, etc. I started out as a research assistant when I was a senior in college. Just got lucky and saw the ad in the local paper. They like me and promoted me to CRC when I graduated (4 years ago). I left for 2 years to work in clinical data management, which was ok, but I missed the pt contact. Plus the data management dept up and moved to PA and I was planning on applying to med school anyway, so the docs I used to work for were good enough to take me back and write me recs! It was just luck of the draw for me, I had no clinical experience prior to this job!

 

[OSU ACTON]

x

 

[Peter Griffin]

I am an EMT and I work for an ambulance company. The only training you need is a one quarter class (very easy) and the National Registry test. It is a really cool job. You take vitals, maintain airway, occasionally do CPR, intubate.

Tell me about how you intubate patients. What level EMT are you?

 

[eggshell]

I am a certified ophthalmic technician working in an ophthalmology practice. Among other things, the techs see patients before the doctors to perform preliminary tests such as refractometry (those of you who wear glasses will recognize this as "Are the letters sharper with one or two"? 🙂 ), tonometry (for glaucoma), corneal topography, etc. It's a pretty cool gig, and I was trained on the job. I am one of the few techs at my office with a degree, so it's obviously not necessary. After I finished college, I wanted something in the health field-I wasn't even considering medicine at the time. So while combing the classifeds, I stumbled across heading of "Ophthalmic Technician". Had no idea of what the job was or what it entailed, but because they were willing to train, I figured I had nothing to lose.

Even in a general ophthalmology practice, you can become involved in and exposed to so many different things (including surgery and research) and I can't help to think how much my experience will help me during my ophth. rotation in school -wishful thinking because I'll probably real clueless during my other ones! 😳

 

[Mistress S]

I'm a patient services staff member at a reproductive health clinic serving mainly poor/uninsured patients. I have worked there throughout college--I volunteered at the clinic during HS and was hired right after graduating, which is unusual as most of my co-workers have at least a bachelor's (although we have hired some medical assistants). I get to draw blood, do in-house lab work like urinalysis and Rh testing, perform pregnancy and HIV counseling and testing, and just generally get a lot of great patient interaction with people who otherwise would generally go without these services. If you are interested in working in the non-profit sector (free clinics and the like) and have a B.A. or B.S. you will probably have more luck finding clinical work, although the pay is often lower than in a hospital. One of the best things about my job is I am passionate about the work we do (reproductive choice, access to contraceptives, etc), and I get to do a lot of hands-on education and put my politics into action, so to speak. Also, since I have worked there for a long time the pay is decent, and the benfits are good.

 

[abraxas20]

I'm taking a break from research too. This year I will get to teach little sixth graders math... I'm excited because I get to decorate a classroom with lots of cutesy girly stuff 🙂

I am glad to know I am not the only med applicant who is a teacher....instead of a researcher. I teach english and linguistics at a university. Best job I have ever had ..... EVER

S

 

[shan1997]

I have two cool jobs. I work as a med tech for cardiopulmonary laboratories and as a radiology support tech for Good Samaritan Hospital. At CPL I travel to various rural counties in kentucky with 1-2 doctors and we do disability exams for the state. I am able to perform EKG's, and PFT's ( breathing tests ) on the patients. It is nice because i get to shadow and assist the doctors as needed and they are at my disposal for advice and insight. I get paid regular pay and travel pay and if we have to stay overnight, my boss pays for the hotel and gives us money to eat on.We also get to drive a company car to the various locations. My boss is paying for a class for me to get my limited radiology license and after that i can take the test to become a rad tech is i choose. Once i get my limited license i will be able to do x-rays for the various clinics we do and get a significant pay increase. My other job at the hospital, i work as a radiology support tech it is cool becasue i get to work in various departments: in CT, Mammography, Nuclear medicine, Ultrasound, X-ray. I am getting hands on experience with patients. I do registration type things, transporting, i do patient history and they are training me to do phelbotomy. Everyone there is great explaining everything to me about the scans and x-rays. Invaluable experience.

 

[talkalot24]

For all of you who are techs in the hospital (OR), how did you hear about the jobs? Where did you go to apply?

 

[Fusion]

Talkalot24 - I simply checked out the job board, filled out an application and submitted it to the human resources dept of the hospital where I was to work. I received a call from my soon-to-be boss about two or three weeks later, interviewed the next day, and started a couple weeks after that. It just so happened that they were looking for a couple new anesthesia techs around the time that I applied (ie, I was in the right place at the right time). I can't tell you how many clinically related jobs I have applied for and was never contacted, despite my education and previous healthcare related experiences. Therefore, with these types of jobs - and pretty much any job for that matter - it is important to take initiative and follow up.

 

[UT_OC]

For all of you who are techs in the hospital (OR), how did you hear about the jobs? Where did you go to apply?

Well, in Austin, there are 2 types of tech jobs that are easily obtained. Surgical Tech - reqs some schooling (about a year of just rotations if you already have all the pre-reqs.) & in Austin, we have Clinical Assistants - reqs no schooling. But, in my opinion, you have to actually go there and apply and ask to talk to the clinical manager and just let them know your situation.. but otherwise applying just on paper won't help too much. I was fortunate, one of my friends made UT-Houston Med School right when I needed a job.. and bascially just brought me in as he left. So either you go in and get involved w/ your app, or you ask around for somebody to hook you up.

 

[abraxas20]

I have two cool jobs. I work as a med tech for cardiopulmonary laboratories and as a radiology support tech for Good Samaritan Hospital.

Hey I work down the street from you....in Patterson Office Tower...cool

 

[pittmed4]

I'm a bartender . . . by far the greatest job ever.

 

[MoosePilot]

I'm a cargo pilot for the USAF. Not a short term job to do while working on your application, though.

I was a Princeton Review teacher while an undergrad. If you've got good test scores and some teaching ability, that's a great one 🙂

 

[dwightbean]

candy store.

 

[Gutierrez001]

I work as an ER tech at Mount Siani in Miami Beach. Great job ,I got the job becuz of my cuz and it pays $15 an hr.

 

[Rpre19]

I teach undergrad premed/prenursing/pre-PA courses (Gen Bio, anatomy & phys, etc.). It's strange going through the process of getting into medical school myself & seeing these fresh new students who are beginning their journey. Its a great experience though & I learned a lot from it. The oddest part is writing LORs for premeds when I need them for myself! 😀
I would definitely recommend teaching in some form if anyone has the opportunity--I learned more from teaching than in my four years of undergrad & I was able to hand out advice from first hand experience!

 

[stifler]

I am quite interested in these hands-on internships/jobs at the hospitals, i.e. medical assistant, clinical assistant, and so on; however I do not know how to go about getting one. Does anyone know any way that I could get one, anybody have any connections or just tips?

btw, im in boston


thanks

yea just pull some strings and be persistant at asking. im from boston too.

 

[UT_OC]

I'm a bartender . . . by far the greatest job ever.

Greatest? I don't know about that.. but I think its a good job. I've been trying to get a bartending job so I can make the $$$.. but I was told I have to start from the bottom and work my way up (bar back to bartender).. that will take a while. 👎

 

[BeatArmy]

I'm a cargo pilot for the USAF.

Flying rubber dog doo out of Hong Kong?

 

[MoosePilot]

Flying rubber dog doo out of Hong Kong?

Exactly. I mostly go the other direction these days, though.